The present invention is concerned with feeding apparatus employed in conjunction with saws set up to repetitively cut sections of uniform length from an elongate length of stock. A typical application of such an apparatus is the cutting of double-mitered sections subsequently assembled into a picture frame or glass frames for doors or windows.
The formation of a mitered frame requires that the parts which are to form the opposite sides of the frame be cut to precisely the same length. Where such parts are to be produced on a mass-production basis, by cutting the individual parts in succession from an elongate length of stock, production efficiency requires that the stock be fed to the saw rapidly between cuts and held stationary at a precisely regulated position during the cutting operation. The stock is conventionally driven by a feed wheel which frictionally engages the stock. In order to avoid damaging the stock, which may be of wood, plastic, aluminum or other nonferrous metal material, the feed wheel is usually formed of a relatively soft, resilient or rubber-like material which tends to wear quite rapidly in the face of intensive usage. As the wheel wears, its frictional grip upon the stock decreases, eventually to the point where production must be interrupted to adjust or replace the feed wheel.
The present invention is directed to a feeding apparatus of the type referred to above in which the operator may make a feed wheel wear-compensating adjustment to the feeding apparatus with only a momentary production interruption.